Someone is (probably) benefiting from Swine Flu fears: the makers of workplace educational videos meant to reduce employee sickness, featuring 8 different "coughing strategies" demonstrated by a hulking actor. The answer to all of this seems to just be "Purell":
Employers can buy a VHS of this video for just $30! Because that's how the internet works. Thanks to Jessica for the tip!
GameStop, that store I'm vaguely aware of but have never set foot in (because I'm a woman), put out this unintentionally funny (though it's trying to be actually funny) video to train their employees on how to sell video games to females, who are recognizable by their purses and the fact they never say "dude." (Dude!). This might be the final nail in the employee training video coffin, because they always get leaked to YouTube:
There's apparently some confusion as to whether this is real or fake, but I would have to go with 100% real, because who with any understanding of comedy videos would bother making it over 8 minutes long? (Though it has familiarized me with GameStop's products, so it could be genius viral marketing.) (Thanks for the tip, Sarah!)
This is from 2006, but it doesn't seem to have gotten much play: an actual ad that ran on TV in defense of our "friend" Carbon Dioxide. It's spit-take-inducingly funny, but I swear, I researched it, and it's not by The Onion. It's 100% real:
This is exactly like Brawndo from Idiocracy ("it has electrolytes!"). In fact, this commercial could easily be in Idiocracy -- particularly with the scary Big Brother-esque "Carbon Dioxide freed us from backbreaking labor..." part. According to Wikipedia, the Competitive Enterprise Institute is a conservative organization funded by oil and drug companies, among others. Competitive Enterprise Institute, if you're googling yourself and reading this, can you please do OxyContin next? My birthday is coming up. Thank you!
(Spoiler alert for the video, but really, you should see the movie already. It's great.) Slumdog Millionaire is winning lots of awards, as it should, and if we learned anything last year in particular, movies that win lots of awards get lots of parodies on the internet. As of this typing, Google returns no results for "Slumdog Millionaire parody," but change is coming. Yesterday, the Hollywood management and production company Benderspink used Slumdog's most recognizable elements for their video holiday card, and apparently learned a shit-ton of dance moves. Everybody go out and buy yellow scarves. It has begun:
Wow, the economy must really be suffering when a venture capital company makes a holiday card that involves no fake rap, no terrible sketches, and is actually pretty heartwarming! A company called First Round Capital was inspired by the viral meme Where The Hell Is Matt? and asked the employees of the 70 start-ups in their portfolio to submit video of themselves dancing. It's really cute, especially the old people:
The Terminator trudged along the wooded path towards the lake, his gun dangling by his side, the taunts still ringing in his hypersensitive bionic ears. He stared at the ground as he walked, and didn't even bother scanning anything with...
After watching Death Sentence, a terrible movie starring Kevin Bacon as a father in search of vigilante justice directed by Saw's James Wan, Gabe embarked on The Hunt For The Worst Movie of All Time. This is his sad journey.
Do you ever eat foods that you know you don't like, just to remind yourself why you don't like them? I think that's a good thing to do sometimes! The worst case scenario is that you might momentarily have a...
Last weekend, something strange happened. Some of the Videogum Monsters created their own secret, password-protected chat room. In 2009! Incredible! I suppose every monster has his cave, or whatever. As it turned out, though, we already had a Videogum Chat...
Blogging about TV and movies isn't all fun and videogames. Every week, Lindsay or Gabe will be presented with a physical or mental challenge that tests their bravery,patience, and taste.
The Challenge: I had to go on a 3.5 hour bus tour of totally random TV and film locations in New York City. Alone, and wearing a specific ridiculous tshirt. And I had to find someone to take my picture...
I went to see Where the Wild Things Are on Saturday, but it was sold out. Ay-ay-ay. That was a surprise! I mean, anticipation for this movie seemed pretty high, but anticipation for lots of movies seems high, especially when...